Palermo, Sicily

Today we docked in Palermo, Sicily. These people looked like they all starred in the Godfather movies. Hollywood must have come here for a casting call while they were filming. We joined an excursion group at 9am for a tour of sights in the city, then a trip to the hilltop village of Monreale. The architecture was beautiful. This island country has been occupied by many different countries and their different arts are mixed together to make this country very unique. Rob called it a ‘collision of cultures’.

We passed part of the remaining city wall dated from 500 BC, the Cathedral was first Byzantine Orthodox, and then when the Arabs conquered they turned the cathedral into a mosque. Now it’s Roman Catholic. Once we were inside, it was a truly amazing site. Everything from floor to ceiling was covered in small mosaic tiles. Many of them were gold.

Next, we toured a cloister joined to the Benedictine Monastery. The church here was over 1000 years old. Some things we saw today were dated 500 BC. The city administration building in the downtown square was built in 1500 AD, and they still use the building today.

We ended our tour with 45 minutes of time on our own before leaving Palermo and getting back on our ship. We walked in and out of little shops and found an artist inside his shop. He was quite friendly and we pointed to his watercolors and said, “Molto Bella”, much beautiful. It was a great moment trying to communicate with this kind, older Italian man. Rob took my picture with him and we purchased one of his small pieces of art. We also bought some hand painted tiles which Rob will someday incorporate into my kitchen repainting project.

It was lunchtime and we tried to find a restaurant to order Bruscetta and Canoli for lunch, but we had no luck. We did order a drink of some kind from a street vendor. Again, he spoke very little English, so this was fun to watch Rob place our order. Vendor squeezed lemon, orange, blood orange and other things that we didn’t recognize. Whatever it was, it was delicious.

We left the city around 1 pm and took a nice nap before getting ready for another formal evening in the Dining Hall. We had a great time with our new table friends, then we all went to the Theater to watch tonight’s show, an illusionist. It was a good show, but we were laughing about how the magician wouldn’t keep his shirt on. His day job must be a professional bodybuilder, or a model for cheap romance book covers.

We joined our dining table friends again for the midnight buffet grand showcase tonight. We all took lots of pictures of the ice carvings and the ‘flower’ arrangements made out of carved vegetables. There was also a three foot eagle carved out of chocolate and breads baked in different recognizable shape

Tomorrow we are at sea and we end our cruise in Barcelona very early Saturday morning. We will enjoy breakfast on our balcony again and sitting on the upper decks in the afternoon sun. We’ll also begin packing for our return flights.

Ciao!